Dates of 2011

September

September 1

Libya’s rebel-led government extends by one week the deadline for loyalists of deposed ruler Muammar al-Qaddafi to surrender, and Qaddafi releases an audio recording declaring that Surt is now the capital of Libya.

The Inter American Court of Human Rights rules that Venezuela’s disqualification of opposition leader Leopoldo López from seeking public office violates the Inter American Convention on Human Rights.

NASA scientists report that the Mars rover Opportunity, which arrived at the crater Endeavour on August 9 after a 21-km (13-mi) journey, has sent back data on a breccia rock that contains unexpectedly high levels of zinc; rocks in the crater date to an earlier geologic era of the planet than has yet been studied.

September 2

Turkey expels the Israeli ambassador and suspends military agreements with Israel in a display of displeasure over Israel’s refusal to apologize for the killing of Turkish nationals in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship in 2010.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in August remained at 9.1%; the economy did not see any net increase in jobs.

It is reported that violence between Christians and Muslims over the past week in Jos, Nigeria, has left at least 21 people dead.

September 3

Eight of the nine legislators ordered reinstated by Afghanistan’s election commission take the oath of office in Kabul while police guard the building to prevent entry by the members who lost their seats in the ruling and their supporters.

The government of South Sudan announces that the capital of the country will be moved from Juba to Ramciel.

George Lee Andrews makes his 9,382nd and final performance in the Broadway musical The Phantom of the Opera, a record run; for most of the 23 years, he played the part of Monsieur André.

September 4

Typhoon Talas makes landfall in western and central Japan, causing massive flooding and leaving at least 20 people dead and a further 50 people missing.

The rebel government in Libya marks the holiday of ʿId al-Fitr by opening the doors of the hall of the General Congress of the People in Tripoli to the public.

At the world track and field championships in Taegu, S.Kor., the Jamaican team anchored by Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 4 × 100 relay with a time of 37.04 sec; the previous record was set at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games by a Jamaican team anchored by Asafa Powell.

September 5

The UN declares that the famine in Somalia has spread to the Bay region and that hundreds of people a day are dying of starvation.

In India the powerful mining tycoon Janardhana Reddy, who holds considerable political sway in Karnataka state, is arrested and charged with having engaged in illegal mining in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Haitian Pres. Michel Martelly nominates Garry Conille as prime minister; Conille is Martelly’s third nominee for the post (his first two choices were rejected).

September 6

A general strike takes place in Italy, where workers march to protest a proposed austerity package.

A wildfire in Bastrop county, Texas, has destroyed some 550 homes, making it the most destructive fire in Texas history; it is one of dozens of wildfires that have burned more than 47,900 ha (118,400 ac) in the state.

English recording artist P.J. Harvey, who in 2001 became the first female winner of the Mercury Prize for best album by a British or an Irish artist, wins the 2011 Mercury Prize for her album Let England Shake; she is the first person to win a second Mercury Prize.

September 7

A bomb explodes in New Delhi at a security checkpoint in the building that houses the Delhi High Court; at least 10 people are killed.

Two suicide bombers, one using a vehicle, attack the home of the deputy inspector general of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Quetta, Pak., killing at least 21 people and injuring 30.

Germany’s Constitutional Court rules that Germany has the legal right to participate in financial rescue packages for weaker members of the euro zone; it also requires that future bailouts be approved by a legislative committee.

September 8

Mahmoud Jibril, the head of Libya’s Transitional National Council’s Executive Board and de facto prime minister, makes his first public appearance in Tripoli to speak at a news conference.

The U.S. National Park Service signs an agreement to expand the 44,100-ha (109,000-ac) Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona by 10,700 ha (26,500 ac) with the long-sought purchase of private ranchland adjoining the park.

Zagat Survey, a customer-based restaurant-review company founded in 1979, sells itself to the online search company Google.

September 9

Protesters in Cairo pull down a protective wall outside the Israeli embassy; damage is also done to the building housing Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior.

China’s state news agency reports that more than 14 million people, most of them in southwestern China, lack adequate drinking water as a result of a long-lasting drought.

Science magazine publishes a report by Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa in which he posits the revolutionary claim that recently discovered fossils of Australopithecus sediba show that the species was likely a direct ancestor of Homo species.

September 10

Yoshio Hachiro resigns as Japan’s minister of trade and industry after having ignited outrage with a jest that appeared to ignore his ministry’s perceived failure to adequately oversee safety measures at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered meltdowns as a result of damage from the earthquake and tsunami in March.

Masked Marvel, ridden by William Buick, wins the St. Leger Thoroughbred horse race at Doncaster, Eng.

September 11

In New York City the National September 11 Memorial is dedicated as part of ceremonies commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; the names of victims are inscribed on walls that surround subterranean fountains on the footprints of the Twin Towers.

Presidential, legislative, and local elections take place in Guatemala; a runoff presidential election is required.

Samantha Stosur of Australia defeats American Serena Williams in an upset to win the women’s U.S. Open tennis championship; the following day Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeats Rafael Nadal of Spain to take the men’s title.

In golf’s biennial Walker Cup competition in Aberdeen, Scot., Great Britain and Ireland defeat the U.S. for the first time since 2003 with a 14–12 victory.

September 12

A bus transporting Shiʿite pilgrims on a trip to a shrine in Damascus is attacked by gunmen in Iraq’s Anbar province; the attackers force the women and children off the bus and then kill all 22 men.

The UN Human Rights Council announces the appointment of a three-person panel to investigate human rights abuses in Syria and estimates the number of protesters killed in Syria to date to be 2,600.

September 13

Insurgents attack the U.S. embassy and the NATO headquarters building in Kabul, leading to a prolonged gun battle in which at least 16 people are killed; NATO commander Gen. John R. Allen the following day accuses a Pakistan-based militia of responsibility for the attack.

The U.S. Census Bureau releases figures showing that in 2010 some 46.2 million Americans lived below the poverty level, 2.6 million more than the previous year, and that the poverty rate was 15.1%; also, the median household income declined 2.3% from the previous year.

September 14

A car bomb explodes outside a crowded restaurant in Babil province in Iraq, killing at least 13 people, and an explosive on a bus carrying Iraqi soldiers in Anbar province kills 6 soldiers.

Pirates seize a Cyprus-flagged fuel tanker and its 23-member crew in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Benin, an area that is seeing an upsurge in such attacks.

The Hague Civil Court orders the Dutch government to compensate the widows of seven men who were executed in Rawagedeh in western Java in 1947 during Indonesia’s fight for independence from the Netherlands.

September 15

A centre-left coalition led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt and the Social Democratic Party wins legislative elections in Denmark, ending 10 years of centre-right rule.

The European Central Bank joins with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank to make U.S. dollars available to the European banking system in an effort to increase market confidence.

Turkey agrees to host a U.S.-made radar system as part of the NATO missile defense shield program.

Astronomers working with the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft launched by NASA in 2009 announce the discovery of a planet circling a double-star system in the constellation Cygnus; the planet, named Kepler 16b, is informally called Tattooine for the planet with two suns in the 1977 movie Star Wars.

September 16

A South Korean government official declares that envoys from North and South Korea have scheduled a meeting to discuss restarting six-country talks on dealing with North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program.

At the National Championship Air Races air show outside Reno, Nev., a World War II-era P-51 fighter plane crashes into a crowd of spectators; 11 people, including the pilot, are killed, and dozens are injured.

September 17

A two-day meeting of finance ministers of euro-zone countries at which U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner urged action ends in Wroclaw, Pol., with no agreement on steps to take to solve the region’s debt crisis.

Fighting erupts between Yemeni security forces and militias aligned with the antigovernment movement in Sanaa.

September 18

In Haining, Zhejiang province, China, angry protests continue for a fourth day against a solar-panel-manufacturing plant that is believed to have contaminated an adjacent river; authorities shut the factory down the following day.

Several armed men wearing army fatigues enter a bar in Gatumba, Burundi, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and open fire on those within, leaving at least 36 people dead.

Demonstrations against government corruption and excessive concentration of power in the king take place in the Moroccan cities of Casablanca and Tangier.

The major Swiss bank UBS releases a statement explaining how it had failed to notice rogue trading that resulted in a loss of $2.3 billion; former trader Kweku M. Adoboli has been charged in the incident.

The Emmy Awards are presented in Los Angeles: winners include the television shows Modern Family and Mad Men and the actors Jim Parsons, Kyle Chandler, Melissa McCarthy, Julianna Margulies, Ty Burrell, Peter Dinklage, Julie Bowen, and Margo Martindale.

September 19

Hundreds of civilians flee Surt, Libya; battles between rebel forces and those loyal to deposed leader Muammar al-Qaddafi have raged for five days.

The Lir, Ireland’s National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College, Dublin, begins operating as Ireland’s first degree-granting theatre conservatory.

New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera notches his 602nd career save in a win over the Minnesota Twins, setting a Major League Baseball record.

September 20

Burhanuddin Rabbani, the head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council and a former president of the country, is assassinated by a suicide bomber who pretended to be a peace negotiator for the Taliban.

A string of car bombs in downtown Ankara, Tur., explode, killing at least three people and injuring more than 30; it is the first bomb attack in the city since 2007.

The end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the U.S. military goes into effect; henceforward openly gay and lesbian people are permitted to serve.

September 21

Greece’s government announces further and deeper austerity measures in an effort to qualify for international aid.

The U.S. Federal Reserve announces a plan to shift debt holdings from short-term to long-term Treasury securities in an attempt to lower borrowing costs to businesses and consumers and thus spark economic growth.

Shelly Yachimovich is chosen to be the new head of Israel’s Labor Party.

Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, American hikers who unintentionally crossed the border from Iraq into Iran in July 2009 and had been jailed in Iran ever since, are released from prison and leave Iran.

September 22

The U.S. ceremonially reopens its embassy in Tripoli, Libya; the embassy had been abandoned in February.

Pope Benedict XVI makes his first state visit to Germany; he addresses the country’s legislature and later celebrates mass for some 60,000 people in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

The American software and computer services company Hewlett-Packard Co. announces that former eBay head Meg Whitman has been chosen to replace Léo Apotheker as the company’s CEO.

Ocean’s Kingdom, a ballet scored by Sir Paul McCartney (his first ballet score) and choreographed by Peter Martins, is premiered by New York City Ballet at the Koch Theater in New York City.

September 23

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas formally requests that Palestine be admitted to the United Nations in a speech before the General Assembly that is watched by thousands in the central square of Ramallah in the West Bank.

Pres. ʿAli ʿAbd Allah Salih of Yemen unexpectedly returns to the country from Saudi Arabia, where he had been recuperating from injuries suffered in an attack on his compound in June.

Michael Sata of the opposition Patriotic Front is sworn in as president of Zambia; he won election over incumbent Rupiah Banda on September 20.

CERN particle physics researchers in Geneva report that they have measured neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light; if the result is borne out by further investigation, it would violate the special theory of relativity.

The 2011 Lasker Awards for medical research are presented to Franz-Ulrich Hartl and Arthur Horwich for their discoveries regarding the mechanism of protein folding in cells, Tu Youyou for his discovery of artemisinin, a lifesaving treatment for malaria, and the Clinical Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health for public service.

September 24

Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev announces at a United Russia party convention that he will not be a candidate for president in next year’s election in order that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may be the party’s candidate.

Elections in Bahrain to fill the 18 legislative seats left open by a walkout on the part of the main Shiʿite opposition party result in extremely low turnout and a need for runoffs for half of the seats.

Government attacks on antigovernment protest supporters leave at least 40 people dead in Sanaa, Yemen.

Oswald Grübel steps down as CEO of the Swiss banking company UBS in light of the huge loss caused by a rogue trader at the bank.

Police appear to use pepper spray without provocation at a demonstration by a group of activists who have occupied Zuccotti Park in New York City since September 17 in the genesis of a growing protest movement called Occupy Wall Street, which is against the influence of financial interests on government at the expense of ordinary people.

September 25

Four successive bombs, two of them car bombs, explode outside a passport office in Karbalaʾ, Iraq; at least 15 people die.

King ʿAbd Allah of Saudi Arabia for the first time grants women the right to vote and to hold office beginning with the next elections, scheduled for 2015; he also says that women may be appointed to the Consultative Council.

Patrick Makau of Kenya wins the Berlin Marathon with a time of 2 hr 3 min 38 sec, a new record time for completing a marathon; Florence Kiplagat of Kenya is the fastest woman, with a time of 2 hr 19 min 44 sec.

The final bullfight takes place in La Monumental arena in Barcelona; the autonomous community of Catalonia, where Barcelona is located, has banned the traditional sport.

September 26

For the first time in the battle for Surt, Libya, forces of the new government succeed in taking control of part of the city.

The U.S. Postal Service drops its rule banning the depiction of living persons on postage stamps.

September 27

Greece’s legislature passes a law to establish the first property tax in the country; the tax will affect about 80% of Greek households and will be a large burden to many of them.

Australia lifts its ban on service in combat roles by women in the armed services.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that a listeria outbreak caused by the consumption of contaminated canteloupes grown in Colorado began in late July and has caused at least 13 deaths in eight states.

September 28

In Afghanistan’s Helmand province, an attack at a checkpoint leaves eight Afghan police officers dead; also, the UN reports a 40% increase in violent episodes in Afghanistan in June, July, and August over the same period in 2010.

A state of emergency is declared in Tuvalu because of an intense drought that began affecting the Pacific island country in November 2010.

A security court in Bahrain issues a death sentence against a protester who is said to have run down and killed a police officer during a demonstration and also sentences eight doctors to long prison terms for having treated injured protesters; several people have recently been sentenced to prison for illegal protests.

Germany’s legislature approves the expansion of the fund available to bail out euro-zone countries with high debt levels; all 17 euro-zone countries must approve the measure, but Germany’s is among the most crucial votes.

Comedian and banjo player Steve Martin and his bluegrass band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, are honoured with the entertainer of the year award, the top prize of the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards.

September 30

A U.S. CIA drone strike in Yemen kills the American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to be a top leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and to be behind several anti-American plots; an American-born editor of al-Qaeda’s online magazine is also killed.

Japan cancels evacuation advisories for an area encompassing five towns outside the 19-km (12-mi) exclusion zone around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered meltdowns after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The government of Myanmar (Burma) suspends a large Chinese-financed hydroelectric dam project on the Irrawaddy River as a response to strong public opposition.

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